_________________________________________________________________________
| |
| F-1 World Grand Prix Driving Guide |
| for the Nintendo 64 system |
| |
| Version 2.0 - 07.15.2003 |
| |
| Written by Jordan Stopciati (superstar64) |
| (js_sstar64@hotmail.com) |
|_________________________________________________________________________|
All names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners.
This document is copyright (c) 2001-2003, Jordan Stopciati.
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Updates
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V0.9 - September 20, 2001
First version contains most of the stuff I want to put in. In the next
version coming soon, I expect to have:
* Challenge mode strategies
Not much to expect of myself, is it? There's a lot more to come, so keep
your eyes peeled for updates. If you have anything to add, just drop me an
e-mail at the address listed below.
V1.0 - January 5, 2002
Finally, I have a complete version 1 out (found that I forgot to put the
basic Australia strategy in... :P). Challenges are done, I've elaborated on
some information (including track lengths and full race distances for each
of the tracks). Hopefully I'll be able to have other stuff for version 1.5,
including some driver profiles.
V2.0 - July 15, 2003
Well, what more can I pull out of this? A lot of revised formatting for
this version, and some expanded circuit guides. That's the deal, folks, and
barring any unforeseen circumstances this is probably the last update.
Merci!
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Table of Contents
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Updates
Table of Contents
Pre-Guide Notes
01. Game Introduction
02. Driving Guide
Primary Concerns
Options and Consequences
Handling 800 Horsepower
Car Settings
03. Teams and Drivers
04. Circuits
05. Challenge Mode
06. Extras
07. Questions
08. Closing Notes
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Pre-Guide Notes
==================================================
F-1 World Grand Prix allows you to view your speed in either the imperial
form (miles per hour) or the metric form (kilometers per hour). In this
guide, however, all speeds and distances are indicated in the metric
format. If you wish to use imperial measurement, use the following formula
to convert from kilometers per hour to miles per hour (and KM to miles):
Miles = KM * 0.621
I currently race in professional F-1 World Grand Prix leagues (and am
currently ranked second in the world, albeit a distant second!) and, as
such, have to employ some advanced strategies to get to the front of the
field. Moreover, there are three difficulties - only two of which will get
you superior times. During the circuit guides, they will be written for
players on the moderate difficulty level (Professional), as they aren't
that different except for the radically different car handling which I will
even touch on there.
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Legal Notices
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There are lots of people out there who are just willing to take any good
FAQ that they can find and do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with
it, including plagiarism. Not if I can't help it. Here's what I ask before
you even start reading this guide, it is reasonably short, very sweet, and
very polite. I don't ask much from you.
This game walkthrough is supplied to you free of charge. Because I really
don't pay much for this sort of thing, I don't ask anything to get this
online. Therefore, I don't make a profit from writing FAQs. I only do it
because I wanted to give some help to people who need it. If you put this
game walkthrough on a website that requires a registration fee, that is
depriving me of due credit. Such activities are absolutely prohibited.
Please e-mail me if you wish to host the FAQ on your site, but understand
that it is your responsibility to update it.
The following sites are authorized to display my FAQ on their site, as well as
their close affiliates:
- http://www.gamefaqs.com
- http://www.neoseeker.com
GameSpot.com, the sponsor site for GameFAQs, has also been authorized to
link to my guides, and I am fully condoning of this activity. If you are
displaying this FAQ on your site it is YOUR responsibility to update it at the
appropriate time, as from now on GameFAQs will be the exclusive forum for
updates.
Please do not use any of this information if you are writing a competing
work (as in, another F-1 World Grand Prix guide) unless you give me full
credit. There are no exceptions to this. I will find out if you rip me off
(I have my sources). It is a fact that I am under eighteen. It is fiction
that I can not sue you. If you merely make it clear where you got the
information from - you don't have to even e-mail me - then there will be no
problems.
Myself, GameFAQs, or any other website that publishes this FAQ can not be
held responsible for any injury, small or large, that directly or
indirectly is connected to this document. I can not be held responsible for
any unsolicited events that are directly related to the usage of this guide
or your game.
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Document Information
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Program used: UltraEdit 32 v10.00c
Margins: 75 characters
File size: 97794 bytes
1931 lines
16,435 words
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01. Game Introduction
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--------------------------------------------------
The 1997 Formula 1 World Championship
--------------------------------------------------
Formula 1 is considered the top motor racing series in the world - it is a
sport of power, riches, and it is the series that has brought out some of
the most famous names in motor racing: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost,
Juan-Manuel Fangio, just to name a few. F-1 World Grand Prix is a racing
game based on the Formula 1 World Championship of 1997 (which,
incidentally, was the same year I began to watch Formula 1 racing).
At the beginning of the season, it was already clear that there were going
to be two teams in the fight for the title: Ferrari and Williams. On each
team there were two truly superb drivers who had proved their potential in
previous years: Michael Schumacher from Germany (for Ferrari), and Jacques
Villeneuve from Canada (for Williams).
The previous year, double world champion Schumacher had been out of title
contention as Williams team mates Villeneuve and Damon Hill fought for the
1996 championship. Hill won the championship, but moved on to the
struggling Arrows team, and Villeneuve became number one driver at
Williams. Villeneuve won the Champ Car series and the Indianapolis 500 in
1995 and was immediately snapped up into Formula 1. Many people were
expecting him to win in 1997, judging from his incredible rookie year.
Villeneuve opened up a quick gap in the opening races of the season, but he
went through some hard times, allowing Schumacher to make up ground in the
middle of the season. Controversially, Villeneuve was disqualified for a
practice violation in Japan. Schumacher won the race while Villeneuve
received no points. It was this twist that allowed Schumacher to take the
lead of the championship by one point going to the final race: the European
Grand Prix in Jerez, Spain.
During qualifying on Saturday, Villeneuve recorded the pole position time
early in the session, then Schumacher matched that time to the thousandth
of a second. Then, unbelievably, Heinz-Harold Frentzen, Villeneuve's
teammate, matched both of them on pole position. But since Villeneuve had
posted the pole position time first, he would start from the first grid
position with Schumacher next to him.
The next day, when the lights went out to begin the race, Schumacher
grabbed the lead into the first corner with Villeneuve trailing him
closely. They circulated together for the first two-thirds of the race with
Schumacher never pulling out too much of a lead.
With 20 laps until the end of the race, after their second pit stops,
Villeneuve took a lunge down the inside going into the slow Dry Sack turn.
Schumacher was startled and took the opportunity to turn in on him. The two
cars made contact and Schumacher ran off into the gravel and retired from
the race.
Villeneuve continued on at a gentle pace, knowing that he could win the
world championship with a sixth place finish as the two McLaren cars of
Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard closed up behind him. They both overtook
him late in the race, but Jacques held on to barely take third place and
the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship with 81 points, becoming the first
Canadian to do so.
Schumacher should have taken second in the world championship with 78
points, but approximately two weeks later, Schumacher was brought up
against the FIA (governing body of the sport) and a decision was made to
exclude him from the results of that year's championship. If one looks at
the results of the 1997 World Championship, Villeneuve's teammate
Heinz-Harold Frentzen is listed with second place.
Schumacher, however, went on to win three straight championships in
dominant fashion from 2000 to 2002 with the Ferrari team, culminating in a
clinching of the championship only ten races through the season in 2002,
while Villeneuve had a difficult year with Williams in 1998 moved on to a
struggling British-American Racing team in 1999. Since his most recent win
at the Nurburgring in 1997, Villeneuve has only earned two podium places.
--------------------------------------------------
Controls
--------------------------------------------------
Worth noting is the fact that F-1 World Grand Prix was the first Nintendo
64 game to "officially" support a wheel configuration. However, all
configuration mentioned here uses the "standard" setting.
The Start button pauses the game and brings up a menu. (Haven't we grown
used to that?)
Press the A button to increase speed. Simple.
Press the B button to brake (I think we're all aware of that configuration,
aren't we?)
The Control Stick controls the direction of your car by steering it to the
left or right. For more acute turning, move the control stick down while
steering in the direction you wish to go.
The C-buttons have the following functions:
C-up - Switch between several different camera angles in race mode and
replay mode.
C-down - Look directly behind you in race mode and replay mode.
C-left - Look behind you (slightly offset) in race mode and replay mode.
C-right - Look behind you (slightly offset the other way) in race mode and
replay mode.
The R button will shift the car up one gear with a manual transmission.
With an automatic transmission, you can only shift between reverse,
neutral, and drive.
The Z and L button shift the car down one gear with a manual transmission.
With an automatic transmission, you can only shift between reverse,
neutral, and drive.
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02. Driving Guide
==================================================
--------------------------------------------------
Primary Concerns
--------------------------------------------------
There are two settings that will affect your progress in the game FOREVER.
Read this first, as this will affect anything and everything that you learn
in this game.
Difficulty
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have a choice of three difficulty settings in F1WGP.
Rookie: Allows you to control your car rather rudimentarily. The computer
intelligence is rather simple, the steering is very much "point and
squirt", and you have the opportunity to use acceleration and braking
assist features.
Professional: The computer intelligence becomes more advanced and you lose
the opportunity to use acceleration and braking assist. Otherwise, the
car's handling does not change that much.
Champion: Here's a challenge and a half. The computer intelligence is at
its most challenging, and most significantly, the handling of the car seems
to be thrown out of the window. The car becomes very unstable in the hands
of an erratic amateur, and can very well lose grip and throw itself onto
the grass. Requires a great deal of practice and patience to control
properly, but it can be used to great benefit with its "drift" handling.
Transmission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As this is a racing game, you can shift up or shift down appropriately. If
you wish, you can leave this off and let the computer shift for you
automatically when you reach maximum revs in each gear, and downshift when
you brake at the appropriate time. If you want control of shifting, select
the manual transmission and use the Z and R buttons to do the shifting for
you. I would recommend using the manual transmission as soon as possible
for greater control over your cornering and speed, as just a simple
downshift can reduce your speed by 10 or 20 km/h - enough to get through a
corner perfectly - without needing to touch the brake.
--------------------------------------------------
Options and Consequences
--------------------------------------------------
Exhibition Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go up against 21 other drivers in a single race. Choose a driver and one of
seventeen real-life Formula 1 circuits, and you're in business.
Grand Prix Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seventeen races and the opportunity to become the world champion. Select a
driver and try to finish as high as possible on each circuit. The driver
with the highest number of points at the end of 17 races wins.*
Challenge Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You've been stuck in a good or bad situation from the 1997 season, and you
have to make the most of it. You start with one challenge in each of three
categories: offense, defense, and trouble, and score points for succeeding
in each one.
Time Trial Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take a test drive on any one of the seventeen Grand Prix circuits. It's
just you and a ghost which appears if you set a new best time. This is the
best mode for setting fast times and becoming experienced with the circuit.
2 Player Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go head-to-head with another player with basically the same selections as
the Exhibition mode (with one exception: there are no CPU players to race.)
__________________________________________________
* The following describes the setup of Grand Prix mode.
You may use two practice sessions, one of Friday, one on Saturday - you are
allotted four laps in Rookie and Professional difficulties, twenty laps in
Champion difficulty.
Qualifying will then take place. You will have twelve laps to use. Your
objective is to try and take the "pole position". If you do, you will be
able to start in first place at the beginning of the race. Put in your best
lap, because you'll only get a few shots at it. If you fail the first time
around, you'll have at least three more opportunities. Once you take pole
position, you might as well stop right there, because your time will not be
bested. Your ranking at the end of qualifying determines your grid
position.
On the race day, you'll get a warm-up session, and the same rules as
practice will apply.
At the end of the race duration, points will be distributed to the top six
finishers, as follows:
1st - 10 points
2nd - 6 points
3rd - 4 points
4th - 3 points
5th - 2 points
6th - 1 point
__________________________________________________
Grid Position
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you go into Exhibition mode exclusively, you can set the grid position
you want to start in. You can choose to make it easy for yourself and start
in first place, or give yourself a challenge and start from the back of the
pack. Since you can't qualify in Exhibition mode, this is the only way you
can set your grid position and the advantage (or disadvantage) that you
have at the beginning of the race.
97 Events
~~~~~~~~~~~
If you turn 97 Events on, the occurances of the 1997 season will be
repeated during your race. Drivers will go out of the race at the same
time, qualify in the same position, and so on. Only you can change the
outcome of what happens, for example if you qualify 15th when the driver
you chose qualified 5th in 1997, the game will adjust accordingly and move
everyone up one position.
Pit In
~~~~~~~~
If you turn this on, you will have to worry about tire wear and fuel, and
having to stop to remedy these conditions (see "pit stops" in a later
section.) Leave it off if you want to stay on the track, not worry about
stopping in the pits, and focus on the race.
Damage
~~~~~~~~
Leaving this mode off will leave your car invincible to any contact with
walls or other cars. If you turn it on, you'll notice the four damage
indicators on your head-up display (SUS, GER, AER, and ENG) can go on at
any time.
Flags
~~~~~~~
The following flags can be displayed if you turn this option on.
Yellow - An incident has occurred and you must slow down to a safe
speed. You are not permitted to overtake while the yellow flag is waving.
Green - You are clear of the hazard that the yellow flag warranted and
free to resume racing and overtaking.
Red - The race has been stopped due to a major incident - you will be
returned to the starting grid immediately. I have only experienced this
once and the game froze in doing so. (E-mail me with information.)
Black/white divided - A warning flag, shown if you have tried to run
across a chicane, passed a car under a yellow flag zone, or driven the
track backwards for extended periods of time. Eight of these in Rookie and
Professional difficulties, or four in Champion, will result in the showing
of a black flag.
Black - Your car have been disqualified from the race for an excessive
amount of black flags, or you are unable to continue the race due to
terminal damage to your car.
Chequered black and white - Signals that the race will end when you
cross the finish line on this lap.
Acceleration/Braking Assist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Indicated when you select your driver, if you select Rookie mode, this
option will become available to you. If you turn it on, the computer will
select the optimum places to start accelerating and braking, and do all
that work for you. All you have to worry about is keeping the car on track.
Turn it off, on the other hand, and the A and B buttons are under your
control. This is a good "tutor", but should not be used for longer than
necessary, as you can take corners at much higher speeds without this
hindrance.
Distance
~~~~~~~~~~
Control the distance that you want to race. Four laps is the shortest
distance, but it won't allow you much time to get a jump on the field if
you're starting in last place, for example. The full race distance (the
number of laps that actual Formula 1 racers race on that track, which is
the lowest number of laps that total over 305 km) may give you more time,
but it'll take up quite a large block of your time, one hour and fifteen
minutes at the least. You can select from 4, 8, 16, half, or full numbers
of laps (you can also run a 2-lap race in head to head mode).
--------------------------------------------------
Handling 800 Horsepower
--------------------------------------------------
Perhaps the greatest challenge for any racer is the simulation game. Here's
how you can drive just about a perfect race, beginning with the start, then
cornering, then moving on to overtaking, pit stops, and trouble. This guide
will wrap up with a discussion of Champion mode. It won't get you world
records, but that's not what I'm here for.
The Start
~~~~~~~~~~~
As a personal recommendation, I would go to Monza in Exhibition mode and
start from 22nd on the grid. The wide start/finish straight there and
comparatively long run down to the first corner allows you to practice your
starts.
In Exhibition and Grand Prix mode, you will have to begin the race from a
standing start from somewhere on the starting grid (in Exhibition, you
selected it at the options screen. In Grand Prix mode, it is the position
in which you qualified). At the top of your screen, you'll see the starting
lights. The red lights will come on, one at a time. The start of the race
is signalled by all five red lights going off, plus an air horn as an audio
cue.
Let your car idle as the red lights come on. Once all five lights come on,
wait about 2 to 2 1/2 seconds and then hit the A button and hold it. When
the lights go off you'll have perfect acceleration. It's very critical to
get proper engine RPM when the lights go off so that you can get an
effective start. As a general guideline, the orange RPM light should be
illuminated. If it's too low or you're not on the gas at all, you won't
have a very good start and will probably lose a few places.
It's preferable to have low RPM than high RPM though: if you do, your
engine will burn out, causing you to smoke your tires and get virtually no
acceleration off the line. This should NEVER happen, but if it does, ease
off the throttle until the skid marks stop, then accelerate again. You'll
almost certainly lose a few positions.
If you have a manual transmission, press R to shift up to first gear right
as the lights go off. With a little bit of practice you can time this
perfectly.
After you get off the line you want to get the best start you can into the
first turn (this is ESPECIALLY critical if you are starting from far back).
The first turns vary from track to track but there are a lot of difficult
ones that you have to deal with. When trying to get past cars on the start,
try to get to the middle of the road as soon as possible, but this will
almost certainly be impossible on some of the narrower circuits. Monza's
wide pit straight allows for easy overtaking, but the narrow pit straights
of Spa-Francorchamps and Monte Carlo do not allow for this.
If it turns out that you can't through, ease off just a little and wait for
an opening. Watch out, however, because you need to make sure that you can
get through the first corner...
Cornering
~~~~~~~~~~~
Formula 1 racing has rarely run on oval tracks in its history (the most
recent race being the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, and even
so, it only uses turn one of the 2.5 mile oval!), so cornering on these
circuits is a totally different breed for those of you used to, well,
making left turns. The Suzuka circuit, with its wide variety of turns, is a
good track to practice on here.
The most important thing to remember, especially on the first turn, is to
brake early and in advance of the turn. The CPU cars have a habit of doing
the same, which if you're going at your own pace only increases the
opportunity for you to slam right into the back of another car and almost
certainly cause a few tears. The longer the distance before the first turn,
though, the more likely you are to see cars in single file, thereby
decreasing the chance for an accident. It's not a good idea to brake while
turning, as that will cause you to lock up, and you'll have a good chance
of running into the gravel traps.
It's best to tap the B button to slow down, as slamming on the brakes only
increases the chance for you to lock up your wheels and inhibit turning.
For almost any corner, 100 meters is considered the acceptable braking
distance, and almost all tracks will have boards hanging around the track
indicating this distance. It's best to run around on the track in Time
Trial mode OR use the Rookie mode and use acceleration and braking assist
to determine when it's appropriate to brake. Some corners may not even
require braking.
The "racing line" will almost assuredly be marked, which indicates where
you should be on the track in order to get through the turn perfectly. This
is the route that MOST cars use and it's indicated on your screen as a
broad line a little bit darker than the rest of the track. It's a good idea
to use the curbs (or rumble strips) marked on the edges of the track, which
give you slightly more room to turn through the curve and mark where you
should be turning.
___________________________
o B |
o |
o |
o |
o |
_______________A |
| o |
| o |
| o |
| o |
| X |
| o |
In this diagram representing a 90-degree turn, you should be moving from
point X to point A to point B following the "o" markers.
Obviously experience is the best teacher, so running the tracks prior to
actually racing on them will help you a lot and allow you to run some
decent lap times. And then for the duration of the race you just have to
keep on repeating that.
Overtaking
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Making passes on the track is probably the best art possible, as you need
to do it to make up positions. There are two basic ways to pass another
car: slipstreaming and cornering.
The first thing to acknowledge is that the intelligence in F1WGP varies.
For instance, you can probably sneak by Trulli or Nakano with less trouble
because of their real-life inexperience, and you may very well end up
getting by them because they make a big mistake and spin somewhere.
However, drivers like Michael Schumacher, Hill, and Villeneuve will all be
a little bit more aggressive and will make life hard for you. Patience is
the key with the latter.
No matter WHAT method you have to use to get by another car, you will need
to very good at cornering and acceleration, and have the guts to be that
little bit faster around the track. The first thing I'm going to mention is
slipstreaming, which basically refers to getting up behind another car and
driving past on the straight.
The aerodynamics of Formula 1 cars require maximum airflow and minimum
resistance along the contours of the car. As the car drives along at 300+
kph, there is a "vortex" effect created at the back of the car that pulls
in any vehicle trailing behind, which is why you'll notice that vehicles
lapping in groups will lap faster than single cars if you ever watch any
sort of racing. If you get directly behind another car on a long
straightaway you'll gain just a tiny speed boost which will be indicated on
the speedometer, which may or may not help you get past. As always, it's
important to get a good run out of the previous corner, to ensure you can
get close enough to use slipstreaming to its fullest.
Cornering is the second method of passing a car, and is the most hazardous.
It is very difficult, but to do it, you must first try to brake later than
the other car. Sometimes the other car will leave you room to go around the
inside, and sometimes not, forcing you to duck to the outside (and if you
need to do this, make sure you don't steer off into the gravel). Then get
good leverage on the gas to ensure that you can get past. Most of the time,
when cornering, your rival will get a VERY slow acceleration, which if you
can get past without smashing into the back of him will be a heck of a lot
easier.
Pit Stops
~~~~~~~~~~~
On the circuit, pit lane is generally marked by "PIT" text on the circuit
(generally just before the grid and start/finish line) as well as an arrow
pointing in the direction of the pits. Generally you'll want to attack it
as quickly as possible, but some of the pit straights will have some
challenging curves thrown in to slow the cars down (augh, hate that.)
When you actually reach the pit lane the car will automatically slow down
to 88 km/h* (which is why I recommend hitting pit lane as fast as possible)
and show a menu allowing you change your fuel, tires, and wing angles.
Refer to the "car settings" section coming up in the next section of this
driving guide**, but make sure you lock it in by moving down to "done"
before the car stops at its pit box. The changes that you want will be
made, any damage sustained will be repaired, and this should take about ten
seconds (twelve only if you want a wing angle change).
* This is limited to 54 km/h at the Monaco circuit and, for some odd
reason, is set to 108 km/h on your way out of the pits.
** The only exception to the Paddock Computer menu being that you have the
option to "keep" your tires. It's on the far right side of the "graph" you
make your selection on.
After service ends your car will move back onto the track (held back by the
pit limiter once again), and just before the pit lane merges back onto the
main track you will regain control of your car and be free to accelerate
once again. On average, pit stops generally cause you to lose 25 to 30
seconds on the road, so you will rejoin in front of anybody farther back
than that before you made your pit stop.
NOTE ABOUT PIT STRATEGY: How frequently you should pit is dependent on the
length of the race. Read the "car settings" subsection for more information
on how you should treat these. As a general rule, however, make sure that
your tires are wearing out (as indicated in "trouble" below) and you are
almost out of fuel at roughly the same time, to avoid having to pit more
times than necessary for different reasons.
4 laps - No pit expected.
8 laps - 1 pit stop at lap 4.
16 laps - 2 pit stops at laps 5-6 and 10-11.
Half - 1 pit stop at one-half of the calculated race distance.
Full - 2 pit stops at 1/3 and 2/3 of the calculated race distance.
Trouble
~~~~~~~~~
These things happen. Your car is damaged, or running out of fuel. What's
the deal?
First of all, keep an eye on those indicator lights on the right side of
your screen, marked: SUS, TYR, AER, GER, ENG, and FUL. If any of these
lights go on, you have some sort of problem with your car. A dim light
illuminating means that you have a moderate problem in that section of your
car. A bright light means that the problem has intensified to the point
where a pit stop is recommended (your crew will voice this to you), and a
flashing light means that the problem is severe enough to make a visit to
pit lane mandatory. I'll state each problem and recommended steps.
SUS - The suspension can be damaged by numerous instances of contact with
the retaining walls around the track or another car. Generally, the
telltale effect of suspension failure is an inability to brake or corner as
effectively as usual. Cautious driving can remedy that problem, but a visit
to pit lane will resolve it immediately.
TYR - Tires, as mentioned earlier, only have a certain lifespan, and will
begin to wear out after certain periods of use, but going off onto the
gravel traps or excessive turning will augment the process. Should you wait
for one or two laps after the light is flashing, your tires will become
VERY ineffective and result in a severe loss of grip while accelerating,
braking, and cornering. Go to the pits immediately, and be a little more
careful next time.
AER - Aerodynamics (more specifically, your front and rear wings) can fail
with contact with other cars. This will have the most drastic effect, but
they have different effects. A blatantly obvious front wing failure will
give you a great deal less grip and a harder time steering, while a rear
wing failure will force you to tiptoe around the track at the risk of
spinning the car in fast corners. Both result in less top speed as well.
The front wing problem is driveable, but a rear wing failure should be
repaired immediately.
GER - This is generally one of the last parts of a car to go, and is
generally caused by excessive engine RPM (which is why I stress the
importance of correct gear ratios). If you have your RPM at the "red" level
for extended periods of time, your gearbox will eventually break down and
you will be unable to use higher gears. Repair immediately.
ENG - The engine can suffer from excessive periods on the gas, and
sometimes even contact as well. Generally there is no real effect when the
light is in its "dim" or "bright" stages, but a flashing light means that
the engine is dangerously close to cutting out on you. If it does, boom,
race over. This process generally happens quite slowly so it's possible to
wait until your pit stop.
FUL - Unfortunately, F-1 World Grand Prix lacks a fuel indicator but does
have this to (roughly) indicate the number of laps that you can run on your
fuel load. Dim lights represent three laps, bright lights represent two.
Once the light begins to flash, you only have an estimated one more lap to
get to pit lane, otherwise you may find yourself stranded on course and out
of fuel. In all likelihood you will not be able to get back. Stop as late
as possible.
An alternative problem could be a change of weather, in the name of rain
(your pit crew will inform you of this over the radio). If this happens,
you're generally better off to make a pit stop immediately as the rain
begins, as staying out on slicks will bring you no benefit and is more
likely to kill your chances. Everybody else will be doing the same anyway.
If you're close to a pit stop, it's best to merge the two.
Should you have an 'off' and run off the boundaries of the track, it's
generally not difficult to recover. You do, however, have to ensure that
you can get back to the track as quickly as possible. Ease off the
accelerator, shift down to first gear, then turn in the direction that will
take you back to the circuit the fastest. It will be slow going (80 km/h),
but you will get there.
Champion Mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rookie and Professional modes are a lot different. But if you want to move
to Champion, you'll have to acknowledge the differences. But if you can,
those differences can result in lap times that are five to six seconds
faster than on Professional difficulty.
The first thing to remember is that your car will now want to dominate you,
instead of vice versa. But, with a little bit of tweaking, you can get it
to drift through the corners at much higher speeds than on Professional by
pushing the control stick rather hard in the direction you want to go (try
it, you'll get the feel for a "drift" eventually). This is where the
configuration of steering sensitivity becomes rather important, so in a
time trial, don't be afraid to go back to the paddock rather frequently.
Second note is with your racing line. You must make sure that you keep to
it, as making a mistake in Champion mode is more likely to send you
spinning into the gravel. This depends on the track though, and some
circuits are more likely to throw you off than others. If this happens to
you frequently, it's never a bad idea to throw caution to the wind.
The final note I'm going to make about Champion difficulty is its rather
problematic damage factor. If you drive smack into the wall, that sort of
smack will do more damage on Champion than on Professional. It's VERY
important to know the tracks at this stage, but more importantly, it's also
very important to feel one with your car. It's like anything, really: if
you let your adversary dominate, you'll never gain control.
Good luck!
--------------------------------------------------
Car Settings
--------------------------------------------------
This MUST be emphasized before you go out onto the track, as if you fail to
pay attention to this, you will have a very hard time keeping on the pace
of the leaders. Read this carefully, and tweak your car appropriately.
These can all be set in the "Paddock Computer" before you begin the race.
Keep an eye on the four graphs (Acceleration, Top Speed, Cornering, and
Braking) to see how the adjustments you are making are having an impact on
your vehicle's performance.
Front Wing Angle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The wing angles are the primary determiner of the aerodynamic efficiency of
your car (from 10 to 40 degrees in 5-degree increments). The lower the
angle, the more top speed on the straights you will have. However, your
braking performance will decrease and it will become harder to turn through
the corners. On the other hand, the higher the angle, the lower your top
speed. However, it allows better braking and better turning. I can also
refer to high wing angles as "high downforce", "more wing", or "more drag".
Rear Wing Angle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like the front wing angle, the rear wing angle determines the aerodynamic
efficiency of your car, and the setup is basically the same as the front
wing. Note that if the front wing angle is lower than the rear wing angle,
the car will have a tendency to understeer. Likewise, if the rear wing
angle is higher than the front wing angle, the car will oversteer, so if
you want to play around with that, you can.
These two settings should be adjusted to the sort of track you are racing
(and this is why you should look at the course maps!). As a general rule,
on circuits with several high-speed straights, you are better off to lower
the wing angles. Circuits with lots of cornering will require higher wing
angles.
Fuel
~~~~~~
I guess this is a pretty simple premise. The more fuel that you put in the
car (from 5% to 100% in five percent intervals), the longer your car will
be able to stay on track before going into the pits. However, you WILL
sacrifice a bit of performance because of the added weight that a car with
more fuel has. As the fuel burns off, this performance disadvantage will be
negated. Keep in mind that this only determines when you have to make your
first pit stop and you can put more fuel in during the race.
The game also includes a number of laps while setting this: this is the
distance you can expect to run before having to make a fuel pit stop. I
find that this works for me in particular, but the car can run for two or
three laps AFTER the amount indicated in the longer distance races. As
such, you can put in just a little less fuel and still be able to stop on
time. Generally I find this number is approximately around 45% to 50% of
capacity, but it's up to you to figure out.
Tires
~~~~~~~
You have two basic options, divided into five tires - slicks and rain
tires, of which you have five options total: soft and hard slicks,
intermediates, and rain and heavy rain tires. The latter three selections
are only dependent on the weather at the time - if it is raining at the
beginning of the race (and you'll know!) you should pick one of the two
rain tires depending on the intensity of the rain. Pick intermediates in
cloudy conditions where rain is likely, as this promotes a balance between
dry and wet weather.
The soft slicks and hard slicks are probably the tires that you'll be using
most frequently. The soft slicks are the best tire you can get, but they
will break down rather quickly and could merit two or even three pit stops,
generally positioned at around 1/3 the distance while running a full lap
race. Hard slicks are slightly inferior, but you will not have to pit as
frequently, perhaps at around half distance.
Gear Ratios
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The gear ratios determine how frequently you must shift (especially
important while using a manual transmission). Regretfully you only have
five general settings (low to high) while customizing your gear ratios,
instead of being able to precisely adjust them. The higher these are set,
the longer the engine will have to work in a certain gear to get it up to
maximum speed and RPM for that gear, therefore causing the acceleration to
suffer slightly. Of course, they also mean that the car will be able to
reach some very impressive top speeds if the acceleration permits you to.
As a general rule, adjust it proportionate to the wing angles but watch
your graphs.
Suspension
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The impact that this has on your car is minimal, but suspension helps
protect the vehicle and provide a bit of "flexibility", if you will, when
going over bumps. The suspension on Formula 1 cars is VERY firm, which
means that a gap in the road that, say, your SUV could take without a
problem will probably damage an F1 car. Hard suspension reduces the
"travel", thereby resulting in better aerodynamic efficiency but also
increasing the potential for damage, especially when running over the curbs
on the track. Soft suspension will have the exact opposite effect, but it
is hard to determine which will be more beneficial without running the
track a few times. Of course, sensible driving is the real way to escape
damage...
Steering Sensitivity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This basically determines how quickly your car will turn. It's critical to
get this right depending on the type of turns that the track is mostly made
up of. If this is too low, the car may want to spin out on you from
excessive steering.
Steering sensitivity determines how sensitive your car is to steering. For
tight turns, you might want to go with a larger steering sensitivity. For
turns which are mostly sweeping, go for a smaller steering sensitivity. Be
careful, however. If you get this wrong, your car may want to understeer
(not want to turn as well as you want it to), or oversteer (turn too much,
turning the car into the inside wall or getting it to turn the wrong way
backwards into the outside wall).
==================================================
03. Teams and Drivers
==================================================
All the teams are roughly equal in performance, but you may want to note
the following for each one. Included is a brief history of each team.
Arrows Yamaha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Damon Hill (Britain)
(2) Pedro Diniz (Brazil)
Arrows Grand Prix was established in 1977 by disgruntled employees of the
Shadow team. The team made its debut at the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix and
went on to take a second-place finish in the Swedish GP later that year, a
record it would equal numerous times in its years of existence but never
beat. The 1997 season was an optimistic one for Arrows with the signing of
1996 world champion Damon Hill, plus Pedro Diniz's impressive sponsorship
opportunities, but swamped with an unreliable Yamaha engine, the team was
unable to come into its own. An impressive second-place finish at Hungary -
which was bittersweet because of the massive 30 second lead Hill lost with
a gearbox failure two laps before the finish. With poor results not helping
the team's situation as well as legal problems, Arrows Grand Prix failed to
attend Grand Prix midway through the 2002 season and was liquidated.
Williams Renault
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(3) Driver Williams / Jacques Villeneuve (Canada)
(4) Heinz-Harold Frentzen (Germany)
Williams took over the ISO team at the end of the 1974 season and began to
race for 1975. Since then, however, it has become one of the top three most
successful teams in Formula 1, with the much longer-running McLaren and
Ferrari organizations and over one hundred wins to their credit. 1997 was
the final year of an unbelievable streak for the Williams team, with a long
string of first- and second-place finishes in the constructor's
championship. Williams won the 1996 world championship with Damon Hill, and
managed to win again with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, with new driver
Frentzen finishing strongly with 42 points. Sadly, Renault withdrew as an
engine manufacturer and left Williams struggling with only a third-place
finish in 1998 as a series of new regulations came into place. The team
seems to be back on the up again, however, with an engines agreement with
BMW in place since 2000.
Ferrari
~~~~~~~~~
(5) Michael Schumacher (Germany)
(6) Eddie Irvine (Britain)
Note for manual transmission drivers: has seven gears.
Ferrari is a tradition-rich team that has been in existence since the
inception of the World Championship in 1950, and because of its long
history is the most successful team in Formula One. Despite all this, the
team never registered a victory until the 1951 season at Silverstone. The
Scuderia had been suffering with some lean years, until 1996 when the team
snapped up an impressive package including double world champion Michael
Schumacher. It took several years, but the team finally won the
constructor's championship in 1999 and followed it up with a driver's title
in Schumacher's name one year later. With Schumacher contracted to 2006,
the domination looks set to continue.
Benetton Renault
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(7) Gerhard Berger (Austria)
(8) Jean Alesi (France)
The Benetton clothes manufacturer entered Formula 1 officially in 1986
having bought out the Toleman team. Success was gradual in their early
years, but the team eventually exploded to the forefront when team boss
Flavio Briatore snapped up soon-to-be world champion Michael Schumacher
after just one race in 1991. After a couple of years of difficult results,
Schumacher won the world championship in 1994 amidst accusations that the
team was cheating. The 1997 season was a disaster, despite Austrian Gerhard
Berger's win at the German GP (it would turn out to be his last before
retirement). Jean Alesi moved to Sauber and eventually retired after a
difficult turn of events in 2001. Benetton was eventually purchased by the
Renault team, who made their return to F1 racing for 2002.
McLaren Mercedes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(9) Mika Hakkinen (Finland)
(10) David Coulthard (Britain)
McLaren was established in the early 60's by racing driver Bruce McLaren,
and holds the honour of one of the longest sponsorship deals in F1's
history and also had one of its greatest movements with a dominant season
like no one had seen before. In 1988, McLaren Honda's two drivers - Alain
Prost and Ayrton Senna - combined for fifteen of sixteen race victories,
the championship eventually going to Senna. Mika Hakkinen joined the team
in 1993, and despite sustaining a head injury in 1995, went on to win a
world championship for the team in 1998 and again in 1999 before retiring
in 2001. Coulthard joined the team in 1996 and showed himself as the faster
driver numerous times throughout the season, winning the opening race and
moving over to let Hakkinen win at the final Grand Prix of 1997. Hakkinen
came into his own in 1998, however, winning the world championship and
following up the following year with yet another.
Jordan Peugeot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(11) Ralf Schumacher (Germany)
(12) Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy)
Note for stick-shifters: this car also has seven gears.
Jordan Grand Prix entered Formula 1 at the beginning of the 1991 season and
snatched up Michael Schumacher for one race at the Belgian Grand Prix,
where the soon-to-be world champion had a rather harsh start with a clutch
failure coming out of the first corner. The team enjoyed relative success
in its early years, with constantly fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the
constructor's championship in the mid-90's. In 1997, Michael Schumacher's
brother Ralf appeared out of the racing backwaters, and enjoyed a rather
promising season with teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, both in their first
full seasons of Formula 1. It was only a taste of what was to come,
however, as Jordan Grand Prix earned a one-two finish at the Belgian Grand
Prix in 1998, and then a third-place finish in constructor's in 1999. Since
then, however, the team has fallen back in performance.
Prost Mugen-Honda
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(14) Olivier Panis (France)
(15) Shinji Nakano (Japan)
Under the direction of ex-world champion Alain Prost, the French team known
as Ligier was bought out after the 1996 season. Prost finished the 1997
season with a Ligier chassis that allowed the team to finish strongly in
the championship with 21 points aggregate. It was a difficult year,
however, with Olivier Panis crashing at the Canadian Grand Prix and
breaking his legs (Jarno Trulli replaced him for the remainder of the
season.) and an unreliable Mugen-Honda engine sapping the team's efforts
and costing Trulli an almost certain win in Austria. The succeeding years
were very difficult for the team with few points-scoring finishes not
helping their efforts, and unfortunately, mounting debts forced the
liquidation of the team just weeks before the start of the 2002 season.
Sauber Petronas
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(16) Johnny Herbert (Britain)
(17) Nicola Larini (Italy)
Peter Sauber, fresh off numerous victories in sportscar racing in the early
90s, moved into Formula 1 with the help of Mercedes-Benz in 1993 and took a
points finish in its opening race. Prior to the 1997 season, Sauber was at
risk of going out of business with the loss of a Ford engine and a driver
in the name of Heinz-Harold Frentzen. However, investors stepped in prior
to the 1997 season and helped raise more sponsorship for the team, and also
negotiated the supply of the previous year's Ferrari engine (an agreement
which the team maintains to this day). Larini turned out to be
disappointing, though, and was replaced mid-season by Gianni Morbidelli,
then Norberto Fontana. Sauber's efforts culminated in a fourth-place finish
in the 2001 championship, a result attained with one of the smallest
budgets in Formula 1 racing.
Tyrrell Ford
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(18) Jos Verstappen (Holland)
(19) Mika Salo (Finland)
Brought into Formula 1 by businessman Ken Tyrrell in the early 70's, the
team enjoyed early success with such successful drivers as Ronnie Peterson,
Jackie Stewart, and Jody Scheckter among others, taking a constructor's
championship in 1971. Tyrrell is known for its unique design innovations,
including the 6-wheeler P34 in 1976 and 1977, and in 1997, the X-wing
design that is featured in F1WGP. Gradually, interest in the team waned,
and Tyrrell was bought out by the emergent British American Racing team at
the end of 1997, and competed for one final year before taking a $30
million settlement and leaving F1 for good. Ken Tyrrell died in 2001 after
a battle with cancer.
Minardi Hart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(20) Ukyo Katayama (Japan)
(21) Jarno Trulli (Italy)
The Minardi team has traditionally made up the tail end of the grid, rarely
if ever managing to score many points in a World Championship season. The
team made its debut inconspicuously in 1984. In 1991, Pierluigi Martini
scored the team's best performance to date, with two fourth-place finishes
during the season. During the 1997 season, the team struggled with poor
results from both of its drivers and the loss of Jarno Trulli midway
through the season to another team. An Italian tax investigation resulted
in the selling of the team to businessman Paul Stoddart in 2002. In 2003
the team had a moment in the spotlight with a one-two in Friday qualifying
at the French Grand Prix, which they would see slip away on Saturday.
* The car has a less powerful V8 engine.
Stewart Ford
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(22) Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)
(23) Jan Magnussen (Denmark)
Another emergent team, Stewart Grand Prix was founded by famous racing Scot
Jackie Stewart and his son Paul for the 1997 season. The results during the
season were poor, with the exception of a second-place for Barrichello at
Monaco in 1997. The team continued to move on, managing to culminate in a
well-deserved one-three for Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello at the
Nurburgring in 1999, in a topsy-turvy rain-affected race. Stewart was
purchased by the Ford Motor Company at the end of 1999, and it was
announced that the cars would be run as Jaguars. To date, the "Leaping Cat"
has failed to win a race but did earn its first podium - in the hands of
Eddie Irvine - in 2001.
* The car has a less powerful V8 engine.
==================================================
04. Circuits
==================================================
I've included a description of some parts of the track (complete track
descriptions would be ruinous). Be warned that the shortcuts that are
stated in this guide will require a little less speed to ensure that you
don't trigger the "anti-shortcut" which spins your car around as if it hits
an invisible wall. I've also included a recommended car setup in the
following form:
(Front wing angle) - (Rear wing angle) : (Gear ratios) : (Steering)
For instance, a proper way of designating setup would be 20-20 : SH : 16.
Good times have also been stated, broken down into each time split on the
track (when you pass over the time splits, you will receive gaps to the
driver in front of you, or your time compared to the best lap in a
session.) The times are accurate to a tenth of a second, and they were
recorded with Michael Schumacher on Professional difficulty with a manual
transmission. You should have no problem beating them in race modes.
01: Australia (Albert Park)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.301 kilometers, 58 laps
The Albert Park circuit winds around a lake in downtown Melbourne and uses
some of the streets in the recreation area to make up the circuit. The
track lacks any hairpin turns or real heavy braking areas. There are
several fast and slow chicanes around the circuit, however, so it is
important to have some good cornering skills around this track. Expect
plenty of curving straights that allow you to build up your speed, and
watch out for the trees which can obscure your view down the road. The
courage to go as fast as possible through some of the quicker corners is
almost a prerequisite here in Australia.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 (or 15-15) : SH : 20
Good time: 28.3, 49.6, 1:19.1
02: Brazil (Interlagos)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.292 kilometers, 72 laps
The Interlagos ("Between the lakes") circuit is notable for its bumpy
nature, fast sweeps and slow hairpins, among other difficulties, and the
first turn (which resembles Laguna Seca's Corkscrew) makes it only too easy
to run off into the gravel. The first half of the lap is made up of fast
turns which should be taken flat-out without a doubt. Roughly halfway
through the lap, however, you encounter a series of quick straights
interrupted by some slow hairpins (right, then left, then right again).
Brakes will suffer, and it's difficult to pick a setup because of the
alternating fast straights and slow corners in different parts of the
track. It's best to get as much grip as possible out of the car though.
Recommended car setup: 25-25 : MD : 20
Good time: 17.8, 51.7, 1:09.9
03: Argentina (Buenos Aires)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.259 kilometers, 72 laps
This is one of the slowest circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, and
cornering is definitely critical in order to win. Other than the front
straight and the back straight, the circuit lacks any long period in which
you can get on the throttle. The corners themselves tend to be rather long,
and (especially in Champion difficulty) one must stick to the racing line
like glue. It's important to take the circuit's variety of corners as
carefully as possible to ensure that you remain on course. They vary a
great deal, from a fast fourth- or fifth-gear chicane to a left-right sweep
that immediately follows a chicane (therefore you must accelerate through
it). None of the circuit is easy, so concentration is vital!
Shortcut: As you exit the chicane in the latter part of the track, enter
pit lane and slow down to 1st gear. Just after the red and white wall to
your left appears, you'll find a gap. Slowly go through it.
Recommended car setup: 30-30 : MD : 22
Good time: 28.0, 53.0, 1:14.1
04: San Marino (Imola)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.930 kilometers, 62 laps
This circuit feels REALLY narrow, first of all, so it's somewhat difficult
to keep the car on track. There are still plenty of passing opportunities,
but the real challenge here is to get the correct line out of all the
corners and not run off onto the grass on some of the faster flicks. One of
these "faster flicks" (which astounds me, really) is the Villeneuve chicane
- the second turn sequence on the track - which despite its profile that
encourages a slower speed, can be taken almost flat out at the risk of
putting your wheels on the grass. Hairpins are few and far between, most
turns made up of 90-degree sweepers. Braking at exactly the right point is
important at most of the corners, and some of the circuit boundaries are
dangerously close to the walls, most notably at the sixth turn sequence
around the track (Variante Alta) where a tall green monster looms
immediately to your right.
Shortcut: At the Variante Alta (sixth turn sequence), as the wall to your
right opens up just before the chicane, take it at speed to skip the
chicane.
Bonus: If you beat a time of 1:23 at San Marino, an early 90's McLaren will
appear as a ghost.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 18
Good time: 14.3, 47.0, 1:22.4
05: Monaco (Monte Carlo)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.366 kilometers, 78 laps
This track (notably reincarnated as Cote D'Azur in the Gran Turismo series)
is a pain because of the Armco barrier on either side of you on the
impossibly narrow track. There is no margin for error, and the run-off that
you do find is hardly sufficient. It's easy to sustain damage because of
contact with the barriers, and almost impossible to find a place to
overtake in the narrow Monte Carlo streets (which is why qualifying is so
critical). This is the slowest circuit out of any on the Formula 1 tour -
my best lap ever here is only about 185 km/h. Two of the turns - Grand
Hotel (a very tight 180-degree left hand hairpin after the first split
time) and Rascasse (a tight 180-degree hairpin to the right after the
chicane sequence) will certainly require first gear and turning while off
the throttle. Good luck finishing, let alone winning here.
Recommended car setup: 35-35 : SL : 22
Good time: 19.7, 39.5, 1:12.4
06: Spain (Barcelona)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.728 kilometers, 65 laps
The Circuit de Catalunya, as it is formally known, possesses a 1,000 metre
front straight before heavy braking for some very demanding turns
throughout the circuit. Lots of fast sweeping corners (especially in the
first section of the track) will demand a lot from the tires, so hard
slicks are not a bad idea here. Luckily, because of the very wide gravel
traps it's easy to recover from an 'off', and you should, because if you
sustain damage to your car from whacking the wall this circuit will
immediately become very difficult. Watch out for the turn sequence
following the first hairpin turn, which is very easy to get wrong. Make
sure that your last two corners are flawless, as they must be taken while
on the throttle without error in order to ensure a good lap.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 22
Good time: 21.9, 50.5, 1:13.3
07: Canada (Montreal)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.421 kilometers, 69 laps
Since the Montreal circuit was built from access roads on an island used
for Expo 67, you'll notice that this circuit is much like Australia in its
love for chicanes. Unlike Albert Park, however, it also includes a couple
of hairpins and will require a lot of practice with braking. Basically, the
circuit is two long straights at both ends of the course, broken up by
chicanes that range from second to fourth gear (perhaps fifth in the last
chicane if you have the guts). Passing is a genuine possibility with good
acceleration, but make sure not to ruin your tires - something that is very
easy to do on a braking circuit. Keep an eye out for the final chicane
(with the rather inappropriate "Bienvenue au Quebec" sign) which has had
its victims in the past, and you could be next. Use the curbs judiciously
to avoid an accident.
Shortcut: Just before the hairpin at the far end of the track, brake
prematurely and steer across the gap to the other side of the track just
before the hairpin.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 20
Good time: 19.7, 42.2, 1:08.5
08: France (Magny-Cours)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.247 kilometers, 72 laps
France is much like Canada in its design but has a few more elements
incorporated into it, such as a long 180-degree right turn (Estoril) right
at the beginning of the course. There are a couple of hairpins where you
must pay attention to the racing line in order to take them properly, and a
couple of extremely fast chicanes which fail to serve their purpose of
slowing the cars down. Because of all the fast corners that you will find
here, you have to make sure that your car remains undamaged. The first
hairpin on the track (Estoril) is a great opportunity to overtake several
cars in the opening laps. Watch out for pit lane, which opens up
immediately after the final chicane, but just before the final right turn
to the left of the track.
Shortcut: As you approach the final chicane, you can take it flat-out and
cut across the gravel. This will give you a slightly better approach to the
start/finish line instead of the final corner.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : MD : 18
Good time: 16.4, 29.9, 1:07.0
09: Britain (Silverstone)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.140 kilometers, 59 laps
With the exception of a few chicanes thrown in to slow the cars down and a
complex in the final section of the track, Silverstone is a high-speed
circuit with an opening section that can, with a little bit of practice, be
taken with only the occasional lift of the throttle and downshifting. One
should not need to use the brakes at Silverstone for at least 30 to 40
seconds of the lap. We then get into the section where the track designers
seem to have realized the circuit is too fast, as then there are several
chicanes attempting to break the high-speed sweeps, culminating in the
final few hairpin turns (The Complex) which will require speeds of roughly
100 km/h and second gear to get around them. Tire wear will be an issue
with the high speed cornering, and three stops may be a possibility.
Overtaking is a relatively simple act.
Shortcut: As you approach Stowe (the corner after the first few turns and
long straight), drift off to the outside and you'll notice an access road
on the outside on the track. Drive on it to be dropped off at the Club
corner.
Recommended car setup: 15-15 : SH : 20
Good time: 25.1, 54.4, 1:11.8
10: Germany (Hockenheim)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6.823 kilometers, 45 laps
Here's a true high-speed circuit for you. The Hockenheim circuit is mostly
situated in the German forest and speeds reach over 350 km/h on the
straights broken only by three extremely demanding chicanes. It is
paramount to use a high-speed, low-downforce setup here for maximum
performance on the straights, but this means that the car's cornering and
braking ability will suffer when you get into the chicanes and the stadium
section in the final 25 to 30 seconds of the lap. As such, you should be
able to adjust to the car's drastically different handling characteristics
(the car will feel very "heavy"). Slipstreaming is almost certainly a
possibility on the high-speed straights. This old version of the circuit
was used up to 2001, before being drastically modified for the 2002 race.
Recommended car setup: 10-10 : HI : 18
Good time: 19.4, 1:08.6, 1:28.2
11: Hungary (Hungaroring)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.968 kilometers, 77 lap race
At this ex-Eastern Bloc circuit, cornering and acceleration are the most
important aspects of a successful race. The configuration is demanding, but
includes a nice variety of fast and slow corners with some very short
straights (which is one of the reasons that this is the second-slowest
circuit on the calendar). As such, you may find that the circuit's layout
is rather insane, but thankfully it does keep you on your toes so the race
will not be extremely boring. The track is more suited to traffic jams
rather than overtaking, so you may very well have to follow another car for
a few laps before passing it. Try not to go off into the gravel, as this
will have more of an effect on performance than on other tracks.
Recommended car setup: 30-30 : MD : 18
Good time: 28.2, 54.1, 1:11.9
12: Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6.968 kilometers, 44 laps
Spa belongs to a different era in racing: one where safety was less of a
concern and the circuits were true challenges of driving. The Francorchamps
circuit was one of them, and this revived circuit manages to maintain these
challenges. The first corner (La Source) is a great overtaking opportunity
and allows for the use of many racing lines, while the very next turn - Eau
Rouge - is one of the most famous in Formula 1 with a left-right-left
uphill configuration that requires a lot of faith in your abilities. The
rest of the track is generally made up of reasonably fast turns but,
regardless, is still quite demanding. Final note about the Bus Stop chicane
(the final sequence on the track): take it cautiously, as it's not worth
extra effort, and more likely you will damage your car on the curbs. Watch
out for rain, especially in Grand Prix mode where you will find that the
wet stuff is frequent.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 18
Good time: 30.9, 1:10.7, 1:37.9
13: Italy (Monza)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.770 kilometers, 53 laps
Monza is one of the greatest tracks in F1, and also takes the title of the
fastest. (Juan Montoya set the fastest ever qualifying lap at Monza in
2002, while Peter Gethin holds the record for the fastest ever F1 race at
Monza in 1971.) Top speed is key here, and everything else must be
sacrificed. Because of the chicanes that have been placed throughout the
circuit, your performance will suffer in those parts of the track, but in
all other sections of the track, trust me, it will be phenomenal.
Slipstreaming is basically the only way to overtake on this circuit,
especially on the back straight. Watch out for the increasing-radius final
turn (Parabolica), which is easy to miss and run wide in during the first
part of the turn but then opens up onto a wonderfully wide pit straight.
Recommended car setup: 10-10 : HI : 18
Good time: 33.5, 59.4, 1:12.6
14: Austria (A1-Ring)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.323 kilometers, 71 laps
The A1-Ring has only nine corners but still stands among all other circuits
as one of the most exciting and challenging. The first two turns (Castrol
and Remus) serve as a great overtaking opportunity in the opening laps when
the cars are bunched up into traffic jams, but the Remus curve will require
first gear AND the loss of a LOT of speed. The middle section of the track
has a lot of fast corners where you must attempt to remain on the black
stuff in order to make sure you hold your position. Running off onto the
gravel, because of the difficulty in recovering, will almost certainly lose
you time and positions. The basic lesson? Keep it on the track here, and
you might have an opportunity to win the race.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 18
Good time: 31.0, 51.5, 1:01.6
15: Luxembourg (Nurburgring)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.556 kilometers, 67 laps
Sadly, a bit of a boring track, as the circuit is a composite of chicanes
and hairpins - a shadow of the original 14-mile circuit. It's certainly not
simple, but lacks any real challenge to it. You'll have the hardest braking
on the course for the Dunlop hairpin at the far end of the circuit, and the
difficulty doesn't end there as the track is banked to the inside.
Overtaking is a distinct possibility on this circuit, but don't get your
hopes up in the middle section where you are more likely to have an
accident if attempting to pass. The final chicane (Veedol) is the best
opportunity to overtake, as well as the start-finish straight. Running off
the circuit is not that big of a deal - recovery is easy due to the massive
run-off areas on the track.
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : MD : 20
Good time: 25.5, 56.6, 1:07.6
16: Japan (Suzuka)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5.864 kilometers, 53 laps
You may wonder if this is a motorcycle circuit with its figure-eight layout
- the answer is yes. It's a challenge, but an exciting one nonetheless. The
opening section of the track - a series of S curves from the start/finish
line to the underpass - is the most important part of the lap, as if your
car is not set up properly, or damaged, or you simply don't have the
courage, you can easily lose time in here. A good, clean run is everything,
whether it be for setting up overtaking, or for getting a time to put you
on pole position. Other than braking, you really should not have any
problems with the remainder of this circuit, which incorporates some fast
sweeps, hairpins, and a chicane just before the finish line. This track is
a great circuit for learning effective cornering, as it seems like you're
never going straight for any long period of time. Overtaking is easy with
knowledge of the circuit!
Recommended car setup: 25-25 : MD : 18
Good time: 36.8, 1:09.3, 1:27.4
17: Europe (Jerez)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.428 kilometers, 69 laps
This is the final race of the World Championship, and it's a strange one.
There are only two types of corners here - fast and slow. There is no
middle ground. There are three long straights (excluding the front
straight) that allow you to hit high speeds (most curving to the left), but
all the same, slow turns are frequent. It's very important to have
confidence in your car as you turn through these corners, as the speeds in
some of the faster turns are sufficient to send you flying smack into the
wall. Overtaking in the fast turns is possible, but will require a heck of
a lot of courage to do so. Don't expect your opponents to give you a great
deal of room!
Recommended car setup: 20-20 : SH : 18
Good time: 21.0, 54.6, 1:10.8
Bonus: U.S.A. (Hawaii)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.003 kilometers, 99 laps
A very short circuit of roughly 3 kilometers, but also one of the slowest
ones with a number of different types of corners. The biggest risk of this
circuit would be on the bridge just after the first time split, where it
rises and falls extremely quickly (more than ANY sensible driver would
desire), increasing the risk of the car bottoming out and flying into the
wall, where you will almost certainly sustain damage. Watch out for the
volcano section where the turn will gradually decrease in radius and become
sharper. And there's no run-off either. Most of the turns are hairpins with
a bit of run-off area to help you. Bottom line? No sensible F1 team would
ever want to come here, but have fun at least.
Recommended car setup: 25-25 : MD : 18
Good time: 15.0, 30.5, 50.2
==================================================
05. Challenge Mode
==================================================
Challenge Mode is a special feature of F-1 World Grand Prix that allows you
to jump into the closing laps of the race in a rush to get back into first
place, or where you need to maintain a lead, or even a situation where you
have to make the best of a bad situation (marked Offense, Defense, and
Trouble categories respectively). At first, only the first challenge in
each of these three categories will be available. Earning at least one
point in a challenge by completing some aspect of it successfully will open
up the next challenge in that category. Earning points in all fifteen
challenges unlocks the Ultimate Challenge. Points from all challenges are
added together, and once you earn 100 points the credits will be shown.
Note: These challenges all use Professional difficulty and an automatic
transmission.
Offense A
~~~~~~~~~~~
Olivier Panis (Prost)
Spanish GP, Circuit de Catalunya
In 1997, Bridgestone began to supply F1 tires to selected teams. Goodyear,
their rival, had previously monopolized the F1 tire market. At the Spanish
Grand Prix, Goodyear introduced a new super-soft tire compound. The extra
grip in these tires produced excellent qualifying times, but in the race,
they couldn't put up with the heat and required more pit stops than
calculated. Olivier Panis is on the longer-lasting Bridgestone tires. You
must gain as many places as possible while the Goodyear users make an
unscheduled pit stop.
Because most drivers will be in the pit lane, you need to know if you can
pass them in the pit lane or not. Most pit stops take ten seconds, but in
reality it is a lot more than that as you are required to slow down when
coming in and out of the pit lane. Therefore, the time lost can be much
greater. Generally, if the driver ahead of you has less than a twenty-five
to thirty second advantage when they enter, as long as you don't mess up by
running off the road, you stand a chance of passing them. If you can pass
some cars out on the track (and you can), that's even better and if you can
get up into third place from a combination of all of these factors, five
points will be earned.
Offense B
~~~~~~~~~~~
Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan)
Canadian GP, Montreal
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Goodyear re-introduced the super soft tire
compound. It had been improved, but there were still problems. Towards the
end of his stint, Giancarlo Fisichella decided to stay out for a while
longer in the hope of gaining time, even though his tires were badly
blistering. Try to gain as many positions as you can and try to get on the
podium. Your tires are extremely worn, however, so be cautious.
If you take the lead before the end of lap 53 (as indicated by the lap
counter, which doesn't always start on one in Challenge mode), you can win
the race. I am absolutely serious. If you drive your heart out (while
trying not to severely damage your tires), you can win. You will be
assisted by some drivers coming in for their pit stops, but be careful. If
your tires really start to blister badly and you have your tyre light
flashing, braking and turning will get more difficult and that will not
help your chances. Reasonably conservative driving will certainly gain you
a podium place, and just a step up from that can get you the win.
Offense C
~~~~~~~~~~~
Shinji Nakano (Prost)
Hungarian GP, Hungaroring
In the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Shinji Nakano found
himself in a situation to score some points. He had been battling with
Eddie Irvine and the two Schumacher brothers for a good part of the race.
Try to pass Irvine as soon as possible. This will allow you to challenge
Michael and Ralf Schumacher and eventually the podium.
You want the podium if you want to earn the maximum five points. You want
nothing else. Once the challenge starts the ranking will be as follows:
Hill, Williams, Herbert, Schumacher, Ralf, Irvine, Nakano (you). Just drive
your butt off around the track. Pass Irvine and the Schumacher brothers as
early as possible (a tall order on a circuit like the Hungaroring) so that
you can challenge for the podium position, as Herbert is quite far ahead
(approximately 25 to 30 seconds) on the track. I can't give much advice
other than that. To do so would just be useless. Follow the track strategy
and you should be just fine.
Offense D
~~~~~~~~~~~
David Coulthard (McLaren)
Italian GP, Monza
The high-speed Monza circuit has very few opportunities for a driver to
make any overtaking manoeuvers. Therefore, if one can get into the lead, it
is a big advantage. In the 1997 race, David Coulthard was challenging Jean
Alesi for the lead but was unable to pass him. When the time came for him
and Alesi to refuel, Coulthard knew the only chance he had to pass Alesi
was if he made a faster pit stop. As Coulthard, try to pass Alesi out on
the track, otherwise follow him into the pit and try to get the lead.
You have to refuel after two laps, while Alesi can hold out until the final
lap of this challenge. So, in order to guarantee yourself the win in this
challenge, it's good if you can pass Alesi down the straights. Just use the
slipstream tactic, get in behind him, then pull out and overtake him. Once
the time comes for you to refuel, two laps into the challenge, attack the
pitlane at maximum speed. One of the advantages of the Monza pitlane is
that you can dive right off the track and hit it at full speed before the
pit limiter kicks in and limits you to 88 km/h. Add one lap of fuel to your
car, then exit the pits. You might have to pass Hakkinen when you come out,
but that should be easy enough to do. Alesi will probably stop on the last
lap, so it'll be easy enough to pass him. However, I have had a race where
he didn't stop, and if that is the case, tough luck and try again.
Offense E
~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
European GP, Jerez
The 1997 championship wrapped up at Jerez. Michael Schumacher led the
Williams' team's top driver by one point. At the end of the first stint,
Schumacher was in third position, and Mika Hakkinen needed to refuel. If he
could stay ahead of the Williams driver, Schumacher could win the
championship. Your objective is to build up a large lead between you and
the Williams driver. Frentzen, in the lead, will attempt to hold you up in
order to close the gap from you to the Williams driver.
This is not the easiest challenge that you will ever have. At the beginning
of the challenge, you are in fourth place. The Williams driver (Villeneuve)
will pull into the pits right at the beginning of the challenge as you come
up to the final turn. Just drive the circuit like the racing driver that
you are. Make the move on Frentzen, and then just shoot off into the
distance. It's a pretty effective method to get the five points that you
will need to win the race. Don't worry about Hakkinen, he'll pit within a
couple of laps of the beginning of the challenge so passing him should not
be much of an order. Pass Frentzen at the soonest opportunity so you can
build a slight gap.
Defense A
~~~~~~~~~~~
David Coulthard (McLaren)
Australian GP, Albert Park
David Coulthard surprised everyone during the Australian Grand Prix by
taking the lead during the race. In the closing laps, Coulthard was under
pressure from Heinz-Harold Frentzen, while Michael Schumacher attempted to
catch the leaders. Your objective is to hold the two of them off and score
McLaren's first victory in three years.
Frentzen might not be all that aggressive, but Schumi certainly is. When I
ran this challenge, HHF retired, and he may or may not do the same for you.
Therefore, you only have Schumacher to contend with. Just try to run as
clean a race as you can. Don't try to play dirty. Follow the track strategy
for Australia, and if you can do that, you shouldn't have a problem scoring
the five points for the win.
Defense B
~~~~~~~~~~~
Gerhard Berger (Benetton)
German GP, Hockenheim
In the German Grand Prix, Gerhard Berger had a big lead over the second
place car of Fisichella. Berger's car began to run short of fuel, meaning
that he had to enter the pits for a refueling stop. Fisichella had enough
fuel on board to overtake Berger while he was in the pit. Try to build up
as much of a lead as you can. Then when you pit, try to maintain your lead,
and possibly even try to build it up again.
You are driving a very good car in the name of the Benetton Renault. It has
a little bit more cornering grip than the sort of car you would usually
drive at Hockenheim (a little bit slower on the straights, but certainly
it's counteracted by the cornering speed you get), so use this advantage to
take the chicanes and the corners as fast as you can. This really helps to
build up your lead. If you open up an effective gap (Fisichella is already
a good amount behind) - at least thirty seconds should be enough - you can
come out of the pits ahead of everyone else. Your pit stop should come
after two laps of racing. Use the final lap of the challenge to open up the
gap as much as you can. Fifteen seconds should be more than enough for five
points.
Defense C
~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
French GP, Magny-Cours
In the closing laps of the French Grand Prix Michael Schumacher was en
route to a victory. He had built up a comfortable lead over challenger
Heinz-Harold Frentzen and victory was assured. However, his brother Ralf
Schumacher was also running a good race in sixth place. If he could stay on
the lead lap, he might be able to benefit from a car dropping out of the
race in front of him. As Michael, lap the French track for the final time
and win the race. Don't lap Ralf Schumacher's car so that he may be able to
score some points as well.
You get to show a little bit of brotherly love in this challenge. The
challenge is very short - one lap. Don't push through the corners. Get to
the point where you're almost allowing Frentzen, who is approximately five
seconds behind you at the beginning of the challenge, to pursue you for the
lead. Try to keep Ralf's yellow car out of sight until the last couple of
turns at the risk of passing him too early (possibly start getting on the
gas in the middle of the straight after the 2nd 180 degree turn). I highly
recommend not showing this kind of respect to your brother if the time ever
comes for you to lap him. =)
Defense D
~~~~~~~~~~~
Heinz-Harold Frentzen (Williams)
San Marino GP, Imola
During the San Marino Grand Prix, Heinz-Harold Frentzen desperately tried
to hold off a charging Michael Schumacher. There were several cars in their
way, though. If Frentzen could get through them faster, they would become
an obstacle to Michael Schumacher. Use the cars that you are lapping in
order to block Schumacher, and win the race.
What can I say? Clear the traffic as fast as you can after attempting to
get loose of Schumacher with some rather reckless driving. If you're good
you can probably lap six cars in about three or four laps. Michael
Schumacher is almost guaranteed to get tied up behind at least one of them
(generally the AI in F1WGP is not as talented as the real guys). If you can
put five or six cars behind you, it shouldn't be all that hard to get about
a eight to ten second gap and get the five points you need to get maximum
points in Challenge mode.
Defense E
~~~~~~~~~~~
Mika Hakkinen (McLaren)
British GP, Silverstone
During the British Grand Prix, Mika Hakkinen was sitting in third place, a
good distance behind the leaders, with everybody on their way to the pits
for new tires. When the time came for pit stops, Hakkinen made the decision
to stay out for a few more laps, despite badly worn tires. Try to build up
as much of a lead as you can in the next few laps. You have badly worn
tires, so be careful out there.
Eddie Irvine, who is in second place, will retire towards the end of your
first lap, and then the Williams driver will go into the pits at the end of
the same lap. At this time, you will be able to take the lead unless you
made a mistake early in the challenge. You will not have much of a gap -
you will probably be able to see the Williams driver exiting the pitlane
and about to resume normal racing speed - but it is enough to take the lead
and get yourself in the driver's seat. Now start speeding around the track
as fast as you dare with bad tires. Going off into the gravel, however,
will cost you the lead so don't be too reckless. At least a ten second gap
should guarantee you five points.
Trouble A
~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps
The Belgian track is well known for its unpredictable weather. Before the
race began, the track was drenched in a torrential downpour. After the
first lap, however, the rain stopped, but unfortunately, since almost all
drivers were on rain tires, they were forced to stop. Michael Schumacher,
on the other hand, started on intermediate tires. This gave him the upper
hand as the track dried. Gain as much time as possible with your superior
tires to guarantee yourself a win.
Most of the cars will most certainly be slower than you as the track dries
out during the first lap. You shouldn't have a hard time passing these cars
and taking the lead. Because all cars are slower when driving in the rain,
once the track starts to dry, you will be faster and be able to post
quicker and quicker lap times. This will help you move up from your
starting position of third place to the lead. Then all you have to do is
keep it up and you should be able to build up a lead of roughly 20 seconds
that will make a comeback unlikely and give you five points.
Trouble B
~~~~~~~~~~~
Ukyo Katayama (Minardi)
Hungarian GP, Hungaroring
During the Hungarian Grand Prix Ukyo Katayama struggled to remain in the
top ten. His brakes had failed in the final laps of the race and were no
longer effective, causing his lap times to become much less impressive.
Your objective is to try to record the best lap times that you can in the
final laps of the race. Because your brakes have failed, you will not be
able to have nearly as effective deceleration.
It's simple enough to drive this circuit, but the problem is that you don't
have brakes. The Hungaroring is a circuit that places a lot of emphasis on
cornering and therefore braking, so you're in a bit of a fix. The best
strategy is to "brake", or release the accelerator, well before the 150
meter board, perhaps even 200 meters before you encounter some of the
corners. On most of the turns you don't have to lose too much speed from
high-speed straights, or has some sort of logical means of deceleration
beforehand. The second last turn will be most difficult, however. Start
slowing down at the chicane because the distance to that slow hairpin will
close fast. Decent laps of around 1:15 should keep you in business.
Trouble C
~~~~~~~~~~~
Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan)
German GP, Hockenheim
Giancarlo Fisichella was running a great race in Germany, when disaster
suddenly struck. With only a few laps to go, Fisichella suffered from a
puncture and lost his left rear wheel on one of the fast Hockenheim
straights. Fortunately, he was able to return to the pits and have it
repaired. Once your tire flies off, try to navigate back to the pits,
replace the wheel, and return to the circuit and try to gain back as much
time as you can.
It's not the comeback that is the hard part, anybody can do that. It is
trying to navigate a tricycle car. If you lose a rear wheel, that is a
bigger problem than if you lost a front wheel. The car is going to want to
pull to the left, so hold the control stick a bit to the right when
traveling straight ahead. Compensate accordingly in the turns (it'll be
easiest to make a left turn, but right turns will be hazardous). Michael
Schumacher is lurking right behind you, so old him up while you struggle
back to the pits. Aim to get back into the top six before the race is over
- you should get back in eighth place and from there, passing two cars
should not be difficult.
Trouble D
~~~~~~~~~~~
Heinz-Harold Frentzen (Williams)
Monaco GP, Monte Carlo
The Monaco GP began in a light downpour. Most teams decided to opt for the
intermediate or rain tires, but the Williams team took a gamble when they
decided to go on slicks. They thought that they would be able to gain
position if the rain stopped. Unfortunately, the rain got heavier and
showed no signs of stopping throughout the whole race. As Frentzen, try to
stay in the lead as long as you can. The slicks will not be effective on a
wet track, so be very careful.
What can I say? You're gonna have a bloody hard time on this challenge.
Just take the corners as carefully as you can and keep an eye on the lineup
behind you (trust me, there will be one, led by you and immediately
followed by Michael or Ralf Schumacher). If one driver decides to dive out
to the side, they're going to pass you, no doubt about it. The longer you
can hold on to your lead, the more points you might be able to score.
Keeping the lead and not making mistakes, however, is critical. If you
surrender a position, you're not going to get it back.
Trouble E
~~~~~~~~~~~
Damon Hill (Arrows)
Hungarian GP, Hungaroring
In 1996, Damon Hill was driving for the powerful Williams team and won the
world championship. However, in 1997, he switched to the weaker Arrows team
and had problems with reliability all season. However, in Hungary, he
shocked everyone by taking the lead and building up a lead of as much as 35
seconds at one point. However, on lap 76, with only two laps remaining,
fate frowned upon Damon. Hill's Arrows weakened and he was left with only
his bottom two gears. Your objective is to try to finish as high as
possible. Even though you have a big lead, the gap will close very quickly.
You'll notice the "GEA" damage light turning from dim to bright to flashing
as you begin the scenario. Your gearbox doesn't break immediately, however.
It is a gradual breakdown of each of your high gears, until you're left
with two, so try and cover as much distance before you end up with a broken
gearbox. The rule of thumb to survive this challenge is to not hit top
revs, so that your car can keep the gears that it does have. Once the
Williams driver catches up (which will most likely be somewhere in the back
of the circuit) try to block as much as you can. You'll get a break in the
turns but you will be hopeless in the straights where your car tops out at
154 km/h. Every time the Williams driver seems to dive to the side, block
until you reach the finish line and five points.
Ultimate
~~~~~~~~~~
Eddie Irvine (Ferrari)
Japanese GP, Suzuka
During the Japanese Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher was able to benefit from
his teammate Eddie Irvine. During the race, Irvine was able to catch, and
then block, the Williams driver. This allowed Schumacher to overtake the
two of them and win the race. As Irvine, repeat this feat in the Ultimate
Challenge. Then, try to finish as high as possible while consigning the
Williams driver to a lower position.
This challenge is twelve laps long. In the esses before the underpass on
lap 1, weave through the traffic in order to get to the front of the field,
as this is the best opportunity that you will have throughout the whole
race. Block the Williams driver, then once you see the other red Ferrari
coming, keep him hemmed in while Schumacher overtakes you (harsh, isn't i?)
Try to do this for as long as you can in the first six laps. I prefer that
you get Williams down to roughly eighth or ninth by lap two or three. Then
you'll have to spend the rest of the day playing catch-up with Michael
until the end of the race, including pit stops. You have to get into 2nd
and be very close to Schumacher, otherwise you might have one or two less
points than the maximum of 25. That's all I have to say about this. No,
it's not exactly ethical, I know...
==================================================
06. Extras
==================================================
You might be aware that you can change the Williams driver's name to
whatever you want. If you change his name to certain names, you can unlock
different things temporarily until you change the name again or turn the
game off. (Note: the first name must be "DRIVER" as in "DRIVER PYRITE" or
something like that.) Here are the last names for temporary cheats:
Chrome - unlock Silver Driver
Pyrite - unlock Gold Driver
Vacation - unlock Bonus Track
Museum - unlock Gallery (can view all 11 teams' cars here)
Pandora - open up all of Challenge Mode in file 4 (Pandora's box?)
The following will earn you the cheats permanently:
80% in Challenge Mode - unlock Silver Driver
90% in Challenge Mode - unlock Gold Driver
Defeat Rookie difficulty in Grand Prix mode - unlock Gallery and Credits
Defeat Professional difficulty in Grand Prix mode - unlock Bonus Track
In Grand Prix mode, set your fuel to the lowest possible level (5%) - you
will receive unlimited fuel for the next race.
==================================================
07. Questions
==================================================
Q: Who is the Williams driver, and why was he not mentioned?
A: In 1997, Jacques Villeneuve was the top driver for the Williams team. He
is the Williams driver in this game. For some reason, most Formula 1 video
games from 1996 to 1998 failed to mention Villeneuve. I have no means of
knowing, although I suspect that he requested not to be included. However,
all Jacques' statistics (date of birth, nationality, etc.) are included in
F1WGP.
Q: Can you explain telemetry?
A: Telemetry is information broadcast from the car to the pits giving
information on the car's diagnostics. In its simplest form, it is a graph
comparing distance to time. In F1WGP, however, telemetry compares time
against speed. This information helps calculate where one is accelerating
and braking, and compared to a best lap telemetry graph, one can determine
to where and how you are gaining/losing time. You can then use that
information to determine what you should do to gain that time back. It is
an invaluable resource to the people who obsess over a "perfect lap".
Q: Who is the best driver?
A: All the cars are roughly equal; I can't really answer that question. As
of right now, it's inconclusive whether the Minardis and the Stewarts
(which use V8 engines) are down on power, as I was able to win a race with
Jarno Trulli. Any one of them will do, in my opinion. I'd recommend the
Gold or Silver Driver, but they're in a class by themselves and they're
just there for fun, not for setting best times or competing in Grand Prix.
Q: Are there any F1WGP competitions online?
A: Yes, check out the N64 High Scores site <http://www.geocities.com/
n64highscores> for further details. Be warned, it's very competitive in
this series.
Q: Where can I find more information on Formula 1 racing?
A: The FIA <www.fia.com> is the governing body of Formula 1 racing, and you
can get an official viewpoint - standings, regulations, and so forth -
there.
==================================================
08. Closing Notes
==================================================
Kudos, must, first of all, go to the following people before anything else
is stated.
- Everyone on the F1 message board that I browsed back in 2001: Mark and
Erik in particular. Their support in the creation of this guide is greatly
appreciated.
- Juan Arevalo, who informed me of the shortcuts on some of the tracks.
- Jeff "CJayC" Veasey, who maintains an awesome site and takes the time to
post my FAQs without complaining. Not many people can lay claim to that.
- Paradigm Entertainment and Video System.
- Myself, I wrote this thing over a period of a few months and came back
two years later to put the baby to rest.
- This will be the only potentially stupid one: the store that I purchased
this game at for $30 Canadian! (Why would I need a manual anyways?)
- You, the reader, knowing full well that if I fail to mention you, this
will be a complete waste of time.
Feel free to contact me at the following e-mail address:
js_sstar64@hotmail.com. This e-mail address is open to suggestions for this
guide, useful tips, compliments, questions, or usage requests. Please
abstain from hate mail, disruptive, flaming, or trolling e-mails, questions
to which the answer is clearly stated here, or unnecessarily personal
e-mails, which will all be deleted without response.
Check out my contributor page at GameFAQs.com here:
<http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/3848.html>
Once again, thanks for reading. This concludes the F-1 World Grand Prix FAQ
for the Nintendo 64, and I'll see you on the track.
This FAQ is copyright (C) 2001-2003 by Jordan Stopciati.
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